AUTHOR'S NOTES: Lo and behold, this fic is not abandoned... it was simply hibernating. Whatever the case, here is another chapter after over a month of no updates. I cannot say if I will get back into the habit of regularly updating or not,but whatever the case, here's the 5th chapter. Here we see the tributes in their training atmosphere, and many of them are fairly clever. Don't even count little Primrose out just yet...
Happy Reading!

CHAPTER 5: Cunning Mindgames

Clove had forgotten about (or rather, had stopped worrying about) Thresh and Rue for the time being, and instead became more focused on the purpose of today—training. This was where she and Cato would get to show off their skills and show those little shits who was going to control the arena.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, they were some of the first ones down there, although within an hour, most of the other tributes were also present. Immediately, Clove spotted Rue, and glared daggers at the smaller girl, who once again simply crossed her arms and glared back almost defiantly, not even blinking. Okay, so perhaps she was not quite over this kid and her partner, the latter of which pointed two fingers at his eyes and then turned them to point at Clove's. Clove cocked her head back towards Rue, who simply raised her eyebrows and flicked her head up as if to reaffirm she was not scared of the career girl.

Either way, Cato and Clove shrugged and headed off to start showing off their skills. Cato went for the swords, and Clove went for the nearby throwing knives, and managed to shrug off the thoughts of Thresh and Rue in that regard.

Marvel and Glimmer appeared to specialize in ranged weaponry, with the boy throwing spears deftly at his targets, and the girl nocking arrows and doing a fairly good job as well. They did not appear to be as good of fighters as Clove and Cato, but the District 2 pair seemed unconcerned by that. They'd still form the usual career pack.

That boy Peeta was staying awfully close to his district partner, or so Clove initially observed. It made sense, given that he was a fairly strapping young man while Primrose was a much smaller and more defenseless looking thing. It was almost an ironic contrast to the other 12-year-old—that District 11 girl. She was a fighter, and it was showing. She had fashioned herself a slingshot, and she had some wicked accuracy with her projectiles.

Knowing that Prim would have no real chance using conventional weapons, she and Peeta made their way to the mostly deserted survival stations, working on tricks like camouflage and trap building. While Peeta's talents with cake decorating had him painting his arm with such precision that it literally matched the imitated surroundings, Prim found herself drawn to a large screen, where she encountered a small, red-haired tribute with a number 5 on her shoulders. For a moment, the younger girl glanced at the redhead and watched what she was doing. The screens appeared to be a sort of memory game, crossed with identifying plants. Perhaps Prim's training as an herbalist would come in handy after all. Before anything else happened though, Prim asked the girl's name out of curiosity.

"Finch;" the girl responded almost as if the inquiry had been a trigger, "Now don't distract me unless you want to lose to me."

And so, Prim remained quiet, watching Finch's skills as her hands and fingers darted across the screen and played the game. A shadow that appeared from behind the diminutive District 12 girl turned out to belong to Peeta, who was also watching that small girl.

"Show her who's boss," he muttered in Prim's ear, "I've seen you back in the Seam. This is your game."

Hesitantly, Prim glanced up at Peeta, who gave an encouraging smile, and then back at the red-haired girl, who had just chuckled triumphantly as she beat her old score. When Prim sat down next to her, she was on the receiving end of a glare from District 5.

"you don't seriously expect to win, do you?" the redhead sneered.

"Let's find out," Prim's face was almost comically stoic. A moment later, the matching game was on, and while Finch was fast, Primrose was faster, and was metaphorically running circles around the older girl like an absolute pro.

After such an agonizing defeat, Finch simply scowled. "You did well," she snarked, "Let's hope that translates well into the arena." And with that, she got up and disappeared into another corner of the training hall. Not more than 12 seconds after this happened, there was a commotion. Prim and Peeta spun around and saw that gigantic District 2 boy, Cato, shouting threateningly at a boy with a 6 on his shoulders. They cautiously approached the scene but kept their distance, not wanting to get on the bad side of an angry career tribute this early in the games.

Cato was rambling about how the boy had stolen his knife, which, in the training center, wasn't a big deal, but his pride was injured, and he was about to take it out on this boy. Some of the Capitol supervisors were hovering nearby in case they needed to get involved. Now and again a fight would break out between tributes, and it was up to these folks to stop it from escalating. The fighting and bloodshed was supposed to be for the arena only.

Prim tapped Peeta on the shoulder a moment later, pointing upward, where, surrounded by netting and in the rafters, was that small girl from District 11, holding a large knife. Upon making eye contact with the District 12 pair, she put a finger to her lips, then she smirked and winked.

Primrose cracked a smile, watching Rue's antics. She didn't stop there though. Instead of trying to slip the knife somewhere conspicuous, she kept a coil of rope around her left arm as she skillfully maneuvered the nets in the ceiling, before targeting a certain tribute, and dropping down, dangling upside-down with her hands and legs attached to this rope, slipping the sheathed knife into the unsuspecting girl's pocket before springing back up into the rafters once again.

Clove did not notice the knife in her back pocket till she moved and felt it against her backside. She brandished it, unaware of what it was for a split-second. Luckily, Cato noticed and he suddenly stopped trying to attack that District 6 boy.

"That was a clever trick," he chuckled, snatching the knife away from his slightly confused partner, who grabbed his shirt and pulled him a few feet away.

"No, no it wasn't," she shook her head, "someone in this room slipped it to me. You saw how far I was from you when your knife disappeared."

Glancing upwards, all they saw was an empty ceiling lined with nets. Across the room was the District 12 pair, who had been watching the spectacle with amused interest. They stood there with their arms crossed, and so while Cato and Clove might have cast them a glare, they knew that they were not the culprits. They were much too far away.

For Clove, it was a process of elimination, and she cornered the tribute in question, actually grabbing Rue's shoulders and pinning her against a wall.

"I know what you did with that knife," she threatened, "Care to 'fess up?"

Rue simply shrugged and rolled her eyes, her lips remaining closed.

It set Clove off much more than it really should have. "I'm going to gut you," she sneered, "in the bloodbath—slowly and painfully." She pushed Rue back against the wall as she stepped back, not wanting any of the supervisors or trainers breathing down her neck, especially not after they just got done doing the same to Cato. Rue stood rooted to the spot where Clove had left her until the knife-thrower joined Marvel, Glimmer, and Cato once again. Shortly after her departure, Thresh stepped up to her, and smirked. Rue's face broke into a grin, and she bumped her fits against Thresh's, before the two of them also went back to training for a while.

Soon enough, lunchtime came, which was also a nice time for the tributes to mingle and start to form alliances after having seen each other's performances a bit so far. Needless to say, nothing was set in stone when there were still 5 more days of training and then the private sessions and interviews, but the seeds of allegiance had been planted.

For the most part, the tributes sat based on District with the exception of Districts 1 and 2. Finch from District 5 passed Prim an angry glare, although was almost immediately shut down when Rue glared at her back as if trying to challenge her. Peeta and Prim were unable to get a word out of either one of them, but they did sit fairly close, which alarmed Clove in particular.

"They're up to something," she pointed, shoving a large slab of meat into her mouth before jabbing her fork towards the District 11 and District 12 tributes.

"I'm not too worried about '12," Marvel shrugged, "you can only paint yourself or identify plants for so long before it comes to bite you in the arse."

"District 11 is different this year," Cato warned, "they're quiet and they're cunning. They need to die first, and die soon."

"I don't think it'll be that easy," Clove shook her head, "they're not just cunning, Cato. They're playing mind games with us—and after the incident with the knife, I think they're onto us. We need to watch them closer. If we don't go after them first… they'll come after us."

AFTERTHOUGHTS:

1-Needless to say, Thresh and Rue are totally up to something. What do you think of their behavior so far, and do you have any thoughts on what they might be planning?
2-There are multiple days of training that I could write. Are there any tributes you want to see more of, or less of?
3-Clove's instability isn't getting any better. Should I delve into more detail about what's going through her mind, or no?
4-With so many days of training, it opens up ample opportunities for various tributes to interact with each other. Are there any tributes that you would like to see interact with any other particular tributes? and if so, which ones?